After facing heat from the Honda City and the Maruti Ciaz, Hyundai is working on an upgraded Verna that will be launched in early 2015.
The C-segment has always been an interesting battleground. The Honda City led the pack for a very long time and it only got defeated by the Hyundai Verna thanks to its diesel engines and the sheer number of features that it comes with. Hyundai was probably having a gala time last year when the Verna recorded 20,759 unit sales in April-August 2013, the sales then dropped to 15,462 units during the same period this year. Most of the heat has come from the fourth generation Honda City and to add fuel to the fire, Maruti went on to launch the new Ciaz at a significantly lower price than the Verna.
The new Honda City comes with a diesel engine, Honda’s famed service and snob value. It is also a much better package than the previous City that makes it so much more desirable. The City managed 9855 unit sales from April-August 2013 and this year the number jumped to 30,447 units during the same period. The Maruti Ciaz is also a decent package since it is quite cheaper than the Verna and Maruti has a better service network across the country. The Ciaz has managed to secure almost 13,000 bookings and around 4000 vehicles have already been delivered.
Hyundai will be launching the upgraded Verna in early 2015. The new model will see few changes being done to the exteriors while the insides will remain largely the same. Larger headlights, LED tail lamps, etc. will all be a part of the new package. Currently the Hyundai Verna is powered by petrol and diesel engines of both 1.4-litre and 1.6-litre capacities and the engines would still remain the same, though Hyundai might retune them to optimise performance and fuel economy. The big change is expected to the suspension which will be further tweaked to improve the ride and handling balance.
